Volume 1, Chapter 4 -- Travels of two Mahomedans
in India and China, in the Ninth Century.

*INTRODUCTION**Section 1* -- Original Account
of India and China, by a Mahomedan Traveller of the Ninth Century*Section 2* -- Commentary upon
the foregoing Account, by Abu Zeid al Hasan of Siraff

INTRODUCTION.[1]

This curious remnant of antiquity was translated from the Arabic, and
published in 1718, by Eusebius Renaudot, a learned Member of the French
Academy, and of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles Lettres. It is not
known by whom the travels were actually performed, neither can their exact
date be ascertained, as the commencement of the MS. which was translated
by Renaudot was imperfect; but it appears to have been written in the 237th
year of the Hegira, or in the year 851 of the Christian era. Though entitled
the travels of two Mahomedans, the travels seem to have been mostly
performed by one person only; the latter portion being chiefly a commentary
upon the former, and appears to have been the work of one Abu Zeid al Hasan
of Siraf, and to have been written about the 803d year of the Hegira, or
A.D. 915. In this commentary, indeed, some report is given of the travels
of another Mahomedan into China. The MS. employed by Renaudot belonged
to the library of the Count de Seignelay, and appears to have been written
in the year 619 of the Hegira, or A.D. 1173. The great value of this work
is, that it contains the very earliest account of China, penned above four
hundred years earlier than the travels of Marco Polo, who was esteemed
the first author on the subject before this publication appeared.

There are many curious and remarkable passages in these travels, which
convey information respecting customs and events that are nowhere else
to be found; and though some of these carry a fabulous appearance, the
greatest part of them have been confirmed and justified by the best writers
in succeeding ages. The first portion, or the actual narrative, begins
abruptly, on account of some portion of the original manuscript being lost,
which would probably have given the name and country of the author, and
the date and occasion of his voyage.

In the accompanying commentary by Abu Zeid, we are informed that the
date of the narrative was of the Hegira 237, A.D. 851, which circumstance
was probably contained in the missing part of the manuscript; but though
written then, it is probable that the first journey of the author was undertaken
at least twenty years before that date, or in 831, as he observes, that
he made a second journey into the same countries sixteen years afterwards,
and we may allow four years for the time spent in the two journies, and
the intervening space, besides the delay of composition after his last
return. Though not mentioned, it is probable his travels were undertaken
for the purpose of trade, as we can hardly suppose him to have twice visited
those distant countries merely for the satisfaction of curiosity.

With regard to the second treatise or commentary, it seems probable,
that when the affairs of China became better known, some prince or person
of distinction had desired Abu Zeid to examine the former relation, and
to inform him how far the facts of the original work were confirmed by
succeeding accounts. The date of the commentary is not certainly ascertainable;
yet it appears, that Eben Wahab travelled into China A.H. 285. A.D. 898,
and that Abu Zeid had conversed with this man after his return, and had
received from him the facts which are inserted in his discourse, which
therefore is probably only sixty or seventy years posterior to the actual
treatise of the nameless traveller.

Volume 1, Chapter 4, Section 1 -- Original Account of
India and China, by a Mahomedan Traveller of the Ninth Century

The third of the seas we have to mention is that of Herkend.[1]
Between this sea and that of Delarowi there are many islands, said to be
in number 1900, which divide those two seas from each other,[2] and are
governed by a queen.[3] Among these islands they find ambergris in lumps
of extraordinary bigness, and also in smaller pieces, which resemble plants
torn up. This amber is produced at the bottom of the sea, in the same manner
as plants are produced upon the earth; and when the sea is tempestuous,
it is torn up from the bottom by the violence of the waves, and washed
to the shore in the form of a mushroom or truffle. These islands are full
of that species of palm tree which bears the cocoa nuts, and they are from
one to four leagues distant from each other, all inhabited. The wealth
of the inhabitants consists in shells, of which even the royal treasury
is full. The workmen in these islands are exceedingly expert, and make
shirts and vests, or tunics, all of one piece, of the fibres of the cocoa
nut. Of the same tree they build ships and houses, and they are skilful
in all other workmanships. Their shells they have from the sea at certain
times, when they rise up to the surface, and the inhabitants throw branches
of the cocoa nut tree into the water, to which the shells stick. These
shells they call Kaptaje.

Beyond these islands, and in the sea of Herkend, is Serendib[4] or Ceylon,
the chief of all these islands, which are called Dobijat. It is entirely
surrounded by the sea, and on its coast they fish for pearls. In this country
there is a mountain called Rahun, to the top of which Adam is said to have
ascended, where he left the print of his foot, seventy cubits long, on
a rock, and they say his other foot stood in the sea at the same time.
About this mountain there are mines of rubies, opals, and amethysts. This
island is of great extent, and has two kings; and it produces aloes wood,
gold, precious stones, and pearls, which last are fished for on the coast;
and there are also found a kind of large shells, which are used for trumpets,
and much esteemed. In the same sea, towards Serendib, there are other islands,
not so many in number as those formerly mentioned, but of vast extent,
and unknown. One of these is called Ramni, which is divided among a number
of princes, and in it is found plenty of gold. The inhabitants have cocoa
nut trees, which supply them with food, and with which also they paint
their bodies, and oil themselves. The custom of the country is, that no
man can marry till he has killed an enemy, and brought off his head. If
he has killed two he claims two wives, and if he has slain fifty he may
have fifty wives. This custom proceeds from the number of enemies with
which they are surrounded, so that he who kills the greatest number is
the most considered. These islands of Ramni abound with elephants, red-wood,
and trees called Chairzan, and the inhabitants eat human flesh.

These islands separate the sea of Herkend from the sea of Shelabet,
and beyond them are others called Najabalus, which are pretty well peopled,
both men and women going naked, except that the women wear aprons made
of leaves. When shipping goes among these islands, the inhabitants come
off in boats, bringing with them ambergris and cocoa nuts, which they barter
for iron; for, being free from the inconveniencies either of extreme heat
or cold they want no clothing. Beyond these two islands is the sea of Andaman.
The people on this coast eat human flesh quite raw; their complexion is
black, with frizzled hair, their countenance and eyes frightful, their
feet very large, almost a cubit in length, and they go quite naked. They
have no sort of barks or other vessels, or they would seize and devour
all the passengers they could lay their hands upon. When ships have been
kept back by contrary winds, and are obliged to anchor on this barbarous
coast, for procuring water, they commonly lose some of their men.

Beyond this there is an inhabited mountainous island, which is said
to contain mines of silver; but as it does not lie in the usual track of
shipping, many have searched for it in vain, though remarkable for a very
lofty mountain called Kashenai. A ship, sailing in its latitude, once got
sight of this mountain, and steered for the coast, where some people were
sent on shore to cut wood: The men kindled a fire, from which there ran
out some melted silver, on which they concluded that there must have been
a silver mine in the place, and they shipped a considerable quantity of
the earth or ore; but they encountered a terrible storm on their voyage
back, and were forced to throw all their ore overboard to lighten the vessel.
Since that time the mountain has been several times carefully sought for,
but no one has ever been able to find it again. There are many such islands
in those seas, more in number than can be reckoned; some inaccessible by
seamen, and some unknown to them.

It often happens in these seas that a whitish cloud suddenly appears
over-head, which lets down a long thin tongue or spout, quite to the surface
of the water, which is then turned swiftly round as if by a whirlwind,
and if a vessel happens to be in the way, she is immediately swallowed
up in the vortex. At length this cloud mounts up again and discharges itself
in prodigious rain; but it is not known whether this water is sucked up
by the cloud, or how this phenomenon comes to pass. All these seas are
subject to prodigious storms, which make them boil up like water over a
fire; at which times the waves dash the ships against the islands with
unspeakable violence, to their utter destruction; and even fish; of all
sizes are thrown dead on shore, against the rocks, by the extreme agitation
of the sea. The wind which commonly blows upon the sea of Herkend is from
a different quarter, or from the N.W.; but this sea is likewise subject
to as violent agitations as those just mentioned, and there ambergris is
torn up from the bottom, particularly where it is very deep; and the deeper
the sea so much the more valuable is the ambergris which it produces. It
is likewise observed, that when this sea is tossed by tempestuous winds
it sparkles like fire; and it is infested with a certain kind of fish called
Lockham, which frequently preys upon men.[5]

*
* *
* *

Among other circumstances, the fires which frequently happen at Canfu
are not the least remarkable. Canfu is the port of all the ships of the
Arabs who trade to China, and fires are there very frequent, because all
the houses are of wood or of split canes; besides, ships are often lost
in going and coming, or they are plundered, or obliged to make too long
a stay in harbours, or to sell their goods out of the country subject to
the Arabs, and there to make up their cargoes. In short, ships are under
a necessity of wasting much time in refitting, and many other causes of
delay. Soliman[6] the merchant, writes, that at Canfu, which is a principal
staple of merchants, there is a Mahomedan judge appointed by the emperor
of China, who is authorized to judge in every cause which arises among
the Mahomedans who resort to these parts. Upon festival days he performs
the public services of religion to the Mahomedans, and pronounces the usual
sermon or Kotbat, which he concludes with the usual form of prayers
for the sultan of the Moslems. The merchants of Irak or Persia, who trade
to Canfu, are no way dissatisfied with the conduct of this judge in the
administration of his office, because his decisions are just and equitable,
and conformable to the Koran.

Respecting the places whence ships depart and those they touch at, many
persons affirm that the navigation is performed in the following order:
Most of the Chinese ships take in their cargoes at Siraff,[7] where also
they ship their goods which come from Basra, Oman, and other ports; and
this is done because there are frequent storms and many shallows in those
seas. From Basra to Siraff is an hundred and twenty leagues; and when ships
have loaded at this latter place they take in water there also. From thence
they sail to a place called Mascat, in the extremity of the province of
Oman, which is about two hundred leagues from Siraff. On the east coast
of this sea, between Siraff and Mascat, is a place called Nasir Bani al
Sasack, and an island called Ebn Kahowan, and in this sea there are rocks
called Oman, and a narrow strait called Dordur between two rocks, through
which ships often venture to pass, but the Chinese snips dare not. There
are also two rocks called Kossir and Howare, which scarce appear above
the water's edge. After they are clear of these rocks, they steer to a
place called Shitu Oman, and take in water at Muscat, which is drawn up
from wells, and are here also supplied with cattle from the province of
Oman. From Mascat the ships take their departure for India, and first touch
at Kaucammali, which is a month's sail from Mascat with a fair wind. This
is a frontier place, and the chief arsenal in the province of that name;
and here the Chinese ships put in and are in safety, and procure fresh
water. The Chinese ships pay here a thousand drams for duties, whereas
others pay only from one dinar to ten. From thence they begin to enter
the sea of Herkend, and having sailed through it, they touch at a place
called Lajabalus, where the inhabitants do not understand Arabic, or any
other language in use among merchants. They wear no clothes, are white,
and weak in their feet. It is said their women are not to be seen, and
that the men leave the island in canoes, hollowed out of one piece, to
go in quest of them, and carry them cocoa nuts, mousa, and palm wine. This
last liquor is white, and when drank fresh is sweet like honey, and has
the taste of cocoa nut milk; if kept some time, it becomes as strong as
wine, but after some days changes to vinegar. These people give this wine,
and the small quantities of amber which is thrown up on their coasts, for
bits of iron, the bargains being made by signs; but they are extremely
alert, and are very apt to carry off iron from the merchants without making
any return.

From Lajabalus the ships steer for Calabar, the name of a kingdom on
the right hand beyond the Indies, which depends on the kingdom of Zabage,
bar
signifying a coast in the language of the country. The inhabitants are
dressed in those sorts of striped garments which the Arabs call Fauta,
and they commonly wear only one at a time, which fashion is common to people
of all ranks. At this place they take in water, which is drawn from wells
that are fed by springs, and which is preferred to that which is procured
from cisterns or tanks. Calabar is about a month's voyage from a place
called Kaukam, which is almost upon the skirts of the sea of Herkend. In
ten days after this, ships reach Betuma, from whence, in ten days more,
they come to Kadrange. In all the islands and peninsulas of the Indies,
water is to be found by digging. In this last-mentioned place there is
a very lofty mountain, which is entirely inhabited by slaves and fugitives.
From thence, in ten days, they arrive at Senef, where is fresh water, and
from whence comes the aromatic wood which we call Hud al Senefi. Here is
a king; the inhabitants are black, and they wear two striped garments.
Having watered at this place, it is ten days passage to Sanderfulat, an
island which has fresh water. They then steer through the sea of Sanji,
and so to the gates of China; for so they call certain rocks and shallows
which form a narrow strait in that sea, through which the ships are obliged
to pass. It requires a month to sail from Sanderfulat to China, and it
takes eight whole days to steer through among the rocks and shoals.

When a ship has got through the before-mentioned gates, she goes with
the flood tide into a fresh water gulf, and drops anchor in the chief port
of China, which is called Canfu,[8] where they have fresh water, both from
springs and rivers, as also in most of the other cities of China. The city
is adorned with large squares, and is supplied with every thing necessary
for defence against an enemy, and in most of the other provinces of the
empire there are cities of strength similarly fortified. In this port the
tide ebbs and flows twice in twenty-four hours; but, whereas from Basra
to the island of Bani Kahouan it flows when the moon is at full, and ebbs
when she rises and when she sets; from near Bani Kahouan quite to the coast
of China it is flood tide when the moon rises, and ebb when she is at her
height; and so on the contrary, when she sets, it is flowing water, and
when she is quite hidden under the horizon, the tide falls.

They say that in the island of Muljan, between Serendib and Cala, on
the eastern shore of the Indies, there are negroes who go quite naked;
and when they meet a stranger they hang him up by the heels and slice him
into pieces, which they eat quite raw. These negroes, who have no king,
feed chiefly on fish, mousa, cocoa nuts, and sugar canes. It is reported,
that in some parts of this sea, there is a small kind of fish which flies
above the water, and is called the sea locust; that in another part, there
is a fish which, leaving the sea, gets up into the cocoa nut trees, and
having drained them of their juices, returns to the sea; and it is added,
that there is a fish like a lobster or crab, which petrifies as soon as
it is taken out of its element, and that when pulverized it is a good remedy
for several diseases of the eyes. They say also, that near Zabage there
is a volcanic mountain which cannot be approached, which sends forth a
thick smoke by day, and throws out flames at night; at the foot of which
are two springs of fresh water, one hot and the other cold.

The Chinese are dressed in silk garments, both in summer and winter,
and this dress is common both to the prince and peasant. In winter, they
wear drawers of a particular make, which reach to their feet, and of these,
they put on two, three, four, five, or more, one over the other, if they
can afford it; and are very careful to be covered quite down to their feet,
because of the damps, which are very great, and of which they are extremely
apprehensive. In summer they only wear a single garment of silk, or some
such light dress, but they have no turbans. Their common food is rice,
which they eat frequently with a broth made of meat or fish, like that
used by the Arabs, and which they pour upon the rice. Their kings eat wheaten
bread, and the flesh of all kinds of animals, not excepting swine, and
some others not used by us. They have several sorts of fruits, as apples,
lemons, quinces, moulats, sugar canes, citruls, figs, grapes, cucumbers
of two sorts, trees, which produce a substance like meal, walnuts, almonds,
filberts, pistachios, plumbs, apricots, services, and cocoa nuts, but no
store of palms, of which they have only a few about private houses. Their
drink is a kind of wine made of rice, having no other wine in the country,
neither is any other imported by them. They do not even know what wine
is, nor will they drink of it. They have vinegar also, and a kind of comfit,
like that called Natef by the Arabs and some others.

The Chinese are by no means nice in point of cleanliness, not washing
with water when they ease nature but only wiping with paper. They do not
scruple to eat of animals which have died, and they practise many other
things like the Magians;[9] and in truth, the two religions are much similar.
Their women appear uncovered, and adorn their heads with many small ivory
combs, of which they wear sometimes a score at one time. The heads of the
men are covered by a cap, of a particular make. Thieves are put to death
as soon as caught.

The Indians and Chinese agree that there are four great or principal
kings in the world, all of them allowing that the king of the Arabs is
the first and most powerful of kings, the most wealthy, and the most excellent
every way, because he is the prince and head of a great religion, and because
no other surpasses him. The Emperor of China reckons himself next after
the king of the Arabs, after him the king of the Greeks, and lastly the
Balhara,[10] or king of the Moharmi al Adon, or people who have their ears
bored. The Balhara is the most illustrious sovereign in all the Indies,
and though all the other kings in India are masters and independent each
in their own dominions, they thus so far acknowledge his preeminence, that
when he sends ambassadors to the other princes, they are received with
extraordinary honours. This king makes magnificent presents after the manner
of the Arabs, and has vast numbers of horses and elephants, and great treasures
in money. His silver coin is what we call Thartarian drams, being equal
to one and a half of the Arabian dram. They are coined with the die of
the prince, and bear the year of his reign, counting from the last year
of the reign of his predecessor. They compute not their years from the
era of Mahomed, like the Arabs, but only by the years of their successive
kings. Most of these princes live a long time, many of them having reigned
above fifty years; and those of the country believe that the length of
their lives and reigns is granted in recompence of their kindness to the
Arabs; for there are no princes more heartily affectionate to the Arabs,
and their subjects profess the same kindness for us. Balhara is not a proper
name, but an appellative, common to all those kings, like Cosroes and some
others. The country under the dominion of the prince begins on the coast
of the province called Kamcam, and reaches by land to the confines of China.
He is surrounded by the dominions of many kings, who are at war with him,
yet he never marches against them.

One of these is the king of Harez, who has very numerous forces, and
is stronger in cavalry than all the other princes of the Indies. He is
an enemy to the Arabs, neither is there any prince in India who has a greater
aversion to the Mahomedans; though he confesses their king to be the greatest
of princes. His dominions are on a promontory, where are much riches, many
camels, and abundance of other cattle. The inhabitants traffic for silver,
and they say there are mines of that metal on the continent. There are
no robbers in this country, nor in the rest of the Indies. On one side
of this country is that of Tafek, which is not of very great extent. This
king has the finest white women in all the Indies; but he is awed by the
kings about him, as his army is very small. He has a great affection for
the Arabs as well as the Balhara. These kingdoms border upon the lands
of a king called Rami, who is at war with the king of Harez, and with the
Balhara likewise. This prince is not much considered, either for the dignity
of his birth or the antiquity of his kingdom; but his forces are more numerous
than those of the Balhara, and even than those of the kings of Harez and
Tafek. It is said that he appears in the field at the head of fifty thousand
elephants, and commonly marches in the rainy season, because his elephants
cannot move at any other time, as they are unable to bear thirst. His army
is said commonly to contain from ten to fifteen thousand tents. In this
country they make cotton garments of such extraordinary fineness and perfection,
as is to be seen nowhere else. These garments are mostly round, and are
wove so extremely fine, that they may be drawn through a moderately sized
ring. Shells are current in this country as small money; and they have
abundance of gold and silver, aloes wood, and sable skins, of which they
make their horse-furniture.
In this country is the famous Karkandan, that is the rhinoceros, or
unicorn, which has but one horn on his forehead, on which there is a round
spot with the representation of a man; the whole horn being black, except
the spot in the middle which is white. The rhinoceros is much smaller than
the elephant, and resembles the buffalo from the neck downwards, and excels
all other creatures in extraordinary strength. His leg is all one thickness,
from the shoulder to the foot, and the hoof is not cloven. The elephant
flies from the rhinoceros, whose lowing is like that of an ox, with something
of the cry of the camel. His flesh is not forbidden, and we have eaten
of it. There are great numbers of this creature in the fens of this country,
as also in all the other provinces of India; but the horns of these are
most esteemed, having generally upon them the figures of men, peacocks,
fishes and other resemblances. The Chinese adorn their girdles with these
sorts of figures, so that some of their girdles are worth two or three
thousand pieces of gold in China, and sometimes more, the price augmenting
with the beauty of the figures. All these things are to be purchased in
the kingdom of Rahmi, for shells, which are the current money of the country.

After this country, there is an inland state distant from the coast,
and called Kaschbin, of which the inhabitants are white, and bore their
ears. They have camels, and their country is for the most part desert,
and full of mountains. Farther on the coast, there is a small kingdom called
Hitrange, which is very poor; but in its bay, the sea throws up great quantities
of ambergris, and they have elephants teeth and pepper; but the inhabitants
eat this last green, because of the small quantity they gather. Beyond
these, there are other kingdoms, but their numbers and names are unknown.
Among these is one named Mujet, the inhabitants of which are white and
dress after the Chinese manner; their country is full of mountains, having
white tops, and of very great extent, in which there are great quantities
of musk; esteemed the most exquisite of any in the world. They have continual
war with all the surrounding kingdoms; The kingdom of Mabet is beyond that
of Mujet, wherein are many cities, and the inhabitants have even a greater
resemblance to the Chinese than those of Mujet; for they have officers
or eunuchs like those who govern the cities among the Chinese. The country
of Mabet borders upon China, and is at peace with the emperor, but not
subject to him. The king of Mabet sends ambassadors every year with presents
to the emperor of China, who in return sends ambassadors and presents to
Mabet. But when the ambassadors of Mabet enter China, they are very carefully
watched, lest they should survey the country, and form designs of conquest;
which would be no difficult matter, as their country is very extensive,
and extremely populous, and as they are only divided from China by rocks
and mountains.

It is said that, in the country of China, there are above two hundred
cities having jurisdiction over others, each of which has a governor and
an eunuch or lieutenant. Canfu is one of these cities, being the port for
all shipping, and has jurisdiction over twenty towns. A town is raised,
to the dignity of a city, by the grant of certain large trumpets. These
are three or four cubits in length, and as large about as can be grasped
by both hands, growing smaller towards the end which is fitted to the mouth.
On the outside, they are adorned with Chinese ink, and may be heard at
the distance of a mile. Each city has four gates, at each of which five
of these trumpets are stationed, which are sounded at certain hours of
the day and night. There are also ten drums in each city, which are beaten
at the same times; and this is done as a public token of obedience to the
emperor, and to point out the hours of the day and night to the inhabitants;
and for ascertaining the time; they have sun dials, and clocks with weights.[11]

In China they use a great quantity of copper money, like that named
falus by the Arabians, which is the only sort of small money, and is current
all over the country, and is indeed the only current coin. Yet their emperor
has treasures like other kings, containing abundance of gold and silver,
with jewels, pearls, silk, and vast quantities of rich stuffs of all kinds,
which are only considered as moveables or merchandize; and from foreign
commerce they derive ivory, frankincense, copper in bars, tortoise shell,
and unicorns horns, with which they adorn their girdles. Of animals they
have abundance, particularly of beasts of burden; such as oxen, horses,
asses, and camels; but they have no Arabian horses. They have an excellent
kind of earth, of which they make a species of ware equal in fineness to
glass, and almost equally transparent. When merchants arrive at Canfu,
the Chinese seize their cargoes, which they convey to warehouses, where
the goods are detained six months, until the last merchant ship of the
season has arrived; they then detain three parts in ten of every species
of commodity, or thirty per cent as duty, and return the rest to the merchants.
Besides which, if the emperor has a mind for any particular article, his
officers have a right of taking it in preference to any other person, paying
for it, however, to the utmost value; and they dispatch this business with
great expedition, and without the least injustice. They commonly take the
whole importation of camphor, on the account of the emperor, and pay for
it at the rate of fifty fakuges per man, each fakuge being
worth a thousand falus, or pieces of copper coin. When it happens
that the emperor does not take the camphor, it sells for half as much again.

The Chinese do not bury their dead till the day twelve months after
their decease; but keep them all this time in coffins in some part of their
houses, having previously dried them by means of quicklime. The bodies
of their kings are embalmed with aloes and camphor. They mourn during three
whole years, and whoever transgresses this law is punished with the bamboo,
a chastisement to which both men and women are subjected, and are at the
same time reproached for not shewing concern for the death of their parents.
They bury their dead in deep pits, much like those in use among the Arabs.
During all the time that the dead body is preserved in the house, meat
and drink are regularly set before it every evening; and if they find these
gone in the morning, they imagine that the dead have consumed all; and
all this time they cease not from bewailing their loss, insomuch, that
their expences upon these occasions, in paying the last duties to their
deceased relations, are exorbitant, and often consume their wealth and
estates, to the utter ruin of the living. In former times, they buried
very rich apparel, and those expensive girdles already mentioned, with
the bodies of their kings, and others of the blood royal; but this custom
is now discontinued, because it has happened that the bodies have been
dug up from their graves by thieves, for the sake of what was buried with
them. The whole nation, great and small, rich and poor, are taught to read
and write. The titles of their viceroys or governors, are varied according
to the dignity and rank of the cities under their government. Those of
the smaller cities are called Tusing, which signifies the governor
of a town. Those of the greater cities, such as Canfu, are stiled Difu,
and the eunuch or lieutenant is stiled Tukam. These lieutenants
are selected from among the inhabitants of the cities. There is also a
supreme judge called Lakshima-makvan, and they have other names
for other officers, which we do not know how properly to express.

A person is never raised to the dignity of a prince, or governor of
a city, until he has attained to his fortieth year; for then they say he
has acquired experience. When one of these princes or viceroys holds his
court, in the city of his residence, he is seated on a tribunal, in great
state, and receives the petitions or complaints of the people; having an
officer called Lieu, who stands behind the tribunal, and indorses
an answer upon the petition, according to the order of the viceroy; for
they null [[?]] no applications but what are in writing, and give all their
decisions in the same manner. Before parties can present their petitions
to the viceroy, they must be submitted to the proper officer for examination,
who sends them back if he discovers any error; and no person may draw up
any of those writings which are to be presented to the viceroy, except
a clerk conversant in business, who must mark at the bottom that it is
written by such a man, the son of such a man: And if the clerk is guilty
of any error or mistake, he is punished with the bamboo. The viceroy never
seats himself on his tribunal until he has eaten and drunk, lest he should
be mistaken in some things; and he receives his subsistence from the public
treasury of the city over which he presides. The emperor, who is above
all these princes or petty kings, never appears in public but once in ten
months, under the idea that the people would lose their veneration for
him if he shewed himself oftener; for they hold it as a maxim, that government
can only subsist by means of force, as the people are ignorant of the principles
of justice, and that constraint and violence are necessary to maintain
among them the majesty of empire.

There are no taxes imposed upon the lands, but all the men of the country
are subject to a poll-tax in proportion to their substance. When any failure
of crops makes necessaries dear, the king opens his store-houses to the
people, and sells all sorts of necessaries at much cheaper rates than they
can be had in the markets; by which means famine is prevented, and no dearth
is of any long continuance. The sums that are gathered by this capitation
tax are laid up in the public treasury, and I believe that from this tax,
fifty thousand dinars are paid every day into the null of Canfu alone,
although that city is not one of the largest. The emperor reserves to himself
the revenues which arise from the salt mines, and those which are derived
from impositions upon a certain herb called Tcha, which they drink
with hot water, and of which vast quantities are sold in all the cities
in China. This is produced from a shrub more bushy than the pomegranate
tree, and of a more pleasant smell, but having a kind of a bitterish taste.
The way of using this herb is to pour boiling water upon the leaves, and
the infusion cures all diseases. Whatever sums come into the public treasury
arise from the capitation tax, the duties upon salt, and the tax upon this
leaf.

In every city there is a small bell hung to the wall, immediately over
the head of the viceroy or governor, which may be rung by a string which
reaches about three miles, and crosses the high way, on purpose that all
the people may have access to it; und whenever the string is pulled, and
the bell strikes, the person who thus demands justice is immediately commanded
to be brought into the presence, where he sets forth his case in person.
If any person inclines to travel from one part of the country to another,
he must have two passes along with him, one from the governor, and the
other from the lieutenant. The governor's pass permits him to set out on
his journey, and specifies the name of the traveller, and of all that are
in his company, with their names and ages; for every person in China, whether
native, Arab, or other foreigner, is obliged to make a full declaration
of every thing he knows about himself. The lieutenant's pass specifies
the exact quantities of goods and money which the traveller and his company
take along with them, and this is done for the information of the frontier
places, where both passes are regularly examined; for whenever a person
arrives at any of these places, it is entered in the register that such
a one, the son of such a one, of such a family, passed through the place,
in such a month, day, and year, and in such company. By this means they
prevent any one from carrying off the money or effects of others, or the
loss of their own goods in case of accident; so that if any thing has been
taken away unjustly, or if the traveller should die on the road, it may
be immediately known where the things are to be found, that they may be
restored to the claimants, or to the heirs of the deceased.

The Chinese administer justice with great strictness, in all their tribunals.
When any person commences a suit against another, he sets down his claim
in writing, and the defendant writes down his defence, which he signs,
and holds between his fingers. These two writings are delivered in at the
same time; and being examined, sentence is pronounced in writing, each
of the parties having his papers returned to him, the defendant having
his delivered first. When one party denies what the other affirms, he is
ordered to return his writing; and if the defendant thinks he may do it
safely, and delivers in his papers a second time, those of the plaintiff
are likewise called for; and he who denies the affirmation of the other,
is warned, that if he does not make out what he denies, he shall undergo
twenty strokes of the bamboo on his buttocks, and shall pay a fine of twenty
fakuges,
which amount to about two hundred dinars. And the punishment of the bamboo
is so severe, that the criminal can hardly survive, and no person in all
China is permitted to inflict it upon another by his own authority, on
pain of death, and confiscation of his goods; so that no one is ever so
hardy as to expose himself to such certain danger, by which means justice
is well administered to all. No witnesses are required, neither do they
put the parties upon oath.

When any person becomes bankrupt, he is immediately committed to prison
in the governor's palace, and is called upon for a declaration of his effects.
After he has remained a month in prison, he is liberated by the governor's
order, and a proclamation is made, that such a person, the son of such
a one, has consumed the goods of such a one, and that if any person possesses
any effects, whatever belonging to the bankrupt, a full discovery must
be made within one month. If any discovery is made of effects belonging
to the bankrupt, which he had omitted to declare, he suffers the punishment
of the bamboo, and is upbraided with having remained a month in prison,
eating and drinking, although he has wherewithal to satisfy his creditors.
He is reproached for having fraudulently procured and embezzled the property
of others, and is chastised for stripping other people of their substance.
But if, after every inquiry, the debtor does not appear to have been guilty
of any fraud, and if it is proved to the satisfaction of the magistrate,
that he has nothing in the world, the creditors are called in, and receive
a part of their claims from the treasury of the Bagbun. This is the ordinary
title of the emperor of China, and signifies the Son of Heaven, which we
ordinarily pronounce Magbun. After this, it is publickly forbidden to buy
of or sell to the bankrupt, that he may not again have an opportunity of
defrauding his creditors, by concealing their money or effects. If it be
discovered that the bankrupt has any money or effects in the hands of another,
and that person makes no disclosure within the time limited, the person
guilty of this concealment is bambooed to death, and the value discovered
is divided among the creditors; but the debtor or bankrupt must never more
concern himself with trade.

Upon a stone ten cubits high, erected in the public squares of all the
cities, the names of all sorts of medicines, with the exact prices of each,
are engraven; and when the poor stand in need of relief from physic, they
receive, at the treasury, the price that each medicine is rated at. In
China there is no tax upon land, but every male subject pays a rateable
capitation in proportion to his wealth and possessions. When a male child
is born, his name is immediately entered in a public register, and when
he has attained his eighteenth year he begins to pay the poll-tax; but
when once a man has reached his eightieth year, he not only ceases to contribute,
but even receives a pension from the treasury, as a provision for old age,
and in acknowledgment of what he paid during his youth. There are schools,
maintained at the public charge, in every town, where the children of the
poor are taught to read and write. The women wear nothing on their heads
besides their hair, but the men are covered. In China there is a certain
town called Tayu, having a castle, advantageously situated on a
hill, and all the fortresses in the kingdom are called by the same name.
The Chinese are generally handsome, of comely stature, and of fair complexions,
and by no means addicted to excess in wine. Their hair is blacker than
that of any other nation in the world, and the Chinese women wear it curled.

In the Indies, when one man accuses another of a capital crime, it is
usual to ask the accused if he is willing to undergo the trial by fire,
and if he consents, the ceremony is conducted in the following manner:
A piece of iron is heated red hot, and the accused is desired to stretch
out his hand, on which they put seven leaves of a certain tree, and above
these the red hot iron is placed. In this condition he walks backwards
and forwards for some time, and then throws off the iron. Immediately after
this his hand is covered with a leathern bag, which is sealed with the
prince's signet; and if at the end of three days he appears and declares
that he has suffered no hurt, they order him to take out his hand, and
if no sign of fire is visible, he is declared innocent of the crime laid
to his charge, and the accuser is condemned to pay a fine of a man
of gold to the prince. Sometimes they boil water in a caldron, till it
is so hot that no one can touch it; they then throw in an iron ring, and
the accused is commanded to thrust down his hand to bring up the ring.
I saw one who did this and received no manner of harm. In this case, likewise,
if the accused remain unhurt, the accuser pays a fine of a man of
gold.

When a king dies in the island of Serendib, which is the last of the
islands of the Indies, his body is laid in an open chariot, in such a posture,
that his head hangs backward, almost touching the ground, with his hair
trailing on the earth; and the chariot is followed by a woman, who sweeps
the dust on the face of the deceased, while she proclaims with a loud voice:
"O man! behold your king! He was yesterday your master, but now the dominion
which he exercised over you is at an end. He is reduced to the state you
now see, having left the world; and the arbiter of life and death hath
withdrawn his soul. Count not, therefore, O man! upon the uncertain hopes
of this life." This or a similar proclamation is continued for three days;
after which the body is embalmed with sandal wood, camphor, and saffron,
and is then burned, and the ashes are scattered to the winds. When they
burn the body of a king, it is usual for his wives to jump into the fire
and burn along with him; but this they are not constrained to do. The same
custom of burning the bodies of the dead prevails over all the Indies.
In the Indies there are men who devote themselves to live in the woods
and mountains, professing to despise what other men most value, abstaining
from everything but such wild herbs and fruits as are to be found in the
woods, and they affix an iron buckle to their genitals in such a manner
as to interdict all commerce with woman. Some of these go quite naked,
or have only the skin of a leopard thrown over them, and keep perpetually
standing with their faces to the sun. I formerly saw one in that posture;
and on my return to the Indies, sixteen years afterwards, I found him in
the very same attitude, it being astonishing that he had not lost his sight
by the heat and glare of the sun.

In all these kingdoms the sovereign power resides in the royal family,
without ever departing from it, and the heirs of the family follow each
other in regular succession. In like manner, there are families of learned
men, of physicians, and of all the artificers concerned in the various
arts; and none of these are ever mixed with the family of a different profession.
The several states of the Indies are not subject to one king, but each
province has its own; though the Balhara is considered in the Indies as
king of kings. The Chinese are fond of gaming and all manner of diversions;
but the Indians condemn them, and have no pleasure in such employments.
They drink no wine, neither do they use vinegar, because it is made from
wine; although this abstinence does not proceed from any religious duty:
but they allege that a king given to wine is not worthy of being a king;
for how should a drunkard be able to manage the affairs of a kingdom, especially
as wars are so frequent between the neighbouring states. Their wars are
not usually undertaken to possess themselves of the dominions of others,
and I never heard of any except the people bordering on the pepper country
that seized the dominions of their neighbours after victory. When a prince
masters the dominions of a neighbour, he confers the sovereignty upon some
person of the royal family of the conquered country, and thus retains it
in dependence upon himself, under the conviction that the natives would
never submit to be otherwise governed.

When any one of the princes or governors of cities in China is guilty
of a crime, he is put to death and eaten; and in general, it may be said
that the Chinese eat all those who are put to death. When the Indians and
Chinese are about to marry and the parties are agreed, presents are interchanged,
and the marriage ceremony is solemnized amidst the noise of drums and various
sorts of instruments. The presents consist in money, and all the relatives
and friends contribute as much as they can afford. If any man in the Indies
runs away with a woman and abuses her, both are put to death; unless it
is proved that force has been used against the woman, in which case the
man only is punished. Theft is always punished capitally, both in India
and China, whether the theft be considerable or trifling; but more particularly
so in the Indies, where, if a thief have stolen even the value of a small
piece of money, he is impaled alive. The Chinese are much addicted to the
abominable vice of pederasty, which they even number among the strange
acts they perform in honour of their idols. The Chinese buildings are of
wood, with stone and plaster, or bricks and mortar. The Chinese and Indians
are not satisfied with one wife, but both nations marry as many as they
please, or can maintain. Rice is the common food of the Indians, who eat
no wheat; but the Chinese use both indifferently. Circumcision is not practised
either by the Chinese or Indians. The Chinese worship idols, before whom,
they fall down and make prayers, and they have books which explain the
articles of their religion. The Indians suffer their beards to grow, but
have no whiskers, and I have seen one with a beard three cubits long; but
the Chinese, for the most part, wear no beards. Upon the death of a relation,
the Indians shave both head and face. When any man in the Indies is thrown
into prison, he is allowed neither victuals nor drink for seven days together;
and this with them answers the end of other tortures for extorting from
the criminal a confession of his guilt. The Chinese and Indians have judges
besides the governors, who decide in causes between the subjects. Both
in India and China there are leopards and wolves, but no lions. Highway
robbers are punished with death. Both the Indians and Chinese imagine that
the idols which they worship speak to them, and give them answers. Neither
of them kill their meat by cutting the throat, as is done by the Mahomedans,
but by beating them on the head till they die. They wash not with well
water, and the Chinese wipe themselves with paper, whereas the Indians
wash every day before eating. The Indians wash not only the mouth, but
the whole body before they eat, but this is not done by the Chinese. The
Indies is larger in extent by a half than China, and has a great many more
kingdoms, but China is more populous. It is not usual to see palm trees
either in the Indies or in China, but they have many other sorts of trees
and fruits which we have not. The Indians have no grapes, and the Chinese
have not many, but both abound in other fruits, though the pomegranate
thrives better in India than in China.

The Chinese have no sciences, and their religion and most of their laws
are derived from the Indians. They even believe that the Indians taught
them their worship of idols. Both nations believe the Metempsychosis, though
they differ in many of the precepts and ceremonies of their religion. Physic
and philosophy are cultivated among the Indians, and the Chinese have some
skill in medicine; but that almost entirely consists in the art of applying
hot irons or cauteries. They have some smattering of astronomy; but in
this likewise the Indians surpass the Chinese. I know not that even so
much as one man of either nation has embraced Mahomedism, or has learned
to speak the Arabic language. The Indians have few horses, and there are
more in China; but the Chinese have no elephants, and cannot endure to
have them in their country. The Indian dominions furnish a great number
of soldiers, who are not paid by their kings, but, when called out to war,
have to take the field and serve entirely at their own expense; but the
Chinese allow their soldiers much the same pay as is done by the Arabs.

China is a pleasant and fruitful country, having numerous extensive
and well fortified cities, with a more wholesome climate and less fenny
country than India, in which most of the provinces have no cities. The
air in China likewise is much better than in India, and there are scarcely
any blind persons, or who are subject to diseases of the eyes; and similar
advantages are enjoyed by several of the provinces of India. The rivers
of both countries are large, and surpass our greatest rivers, and much
rain falls in both countries. In the ladies there are many desert tracks,
but China is inhabited and cultivated through its whole extent. The Chinese
are handsomer than the Indians, and come nearer to the Arabs in countenance
and dress, in their manners, in the way of riding, and in their ceremonies,
wearing long garments and girdles in the manner of belts; while the Indians
wear two short vests, and both men and women wear golden bracelets, adorned
with precious stones.

Beyond the kingdom of China, there is a country called Tagazgaz, taking
its name from a nation of Turks by which it is inhabited, and also the
country of Kakhan which borders on the Turks. The islands of Sila are inhabited
by white people, who send presents to the Emperor of China, and who are
persuaded that if they were to neglect this the rain of heaven would not
fall upon their country. In that country there are white falcons; but none
of our people have been there to give us any particular information concerning
them.

===========
[1] This is probably the sea about the Maldives, which, according to
the eastern geographers, divides that part of the Indian Ocean from the
sea of Delarowi, or the Magnus Sinus of the ancients. The eastern writers
often speak of the Seven Seas, which seems rather a proverbial phrase,
than a geographical definition. These are the seas of China, India, Persia,
Kolzoum, or the Red Sea, of Rum or Greece, which is the Mediterranean,
Alehozar or the Caspian, Pont or the Euxine. The sea of India is often
called the Green Sea, and the Persian Gulf the sea of Bassora. The Ocean
is called Bahr Mahit.--Harris
[2] Male-dive signifies, in the Malabar language, a thousand isles.--E.
[3] The subsequent accounts of these islands do not justify this particular
sentence, if the author meant that they were always governed by a queen.
It might be so in this time by accident, and one queen might have succeeded
another, as Queen Elizabeth did Queen Mary.--Harris.
[4] This is the Taprobana of the ancients, and has received many names.
In Cosmas Indicopleustes, it is called Sielendiba, which is merely a Grecian
corruption of Sielea-dive, or Sielen island; whence the modern name of
Ceylon.--E.
[5] This is probably the shark, which is common on all the coasts of
India. There was a portion of the MS. wanting at this place; wherein the
author treated of the trade to China as it was carried on in his time,
and of the causes which had brought it into a declining condition.--Renaud.
[6] Perhaps some account of this Soliman might be contained in the
lost pages: But the circumstance of a Mahomedan judge or consul at Canfu
is a circumstance worthy of notice, and shews that the Mahomedans had carried
on a regular and settled trade with China for a considerable time, and
were in high estimation in that country.--Renaud.
[7] It is difficult at this distance of time to ascertain the rout
laid down by this author, on account of the changes of names. This mart
of Siraff is not to be met with in any of our maps; but it is said by the
Arabian geographers to have been in the gulf of Persia, about sixty leagues
from Shiraz; and that on its decay, the trade was transferred to Ormuz.--Renaud.
[8] It is probable, or rather certain, that Canton is here meant.--E.
[9] Meaning the Parsees or Guebres, the fire-worshippers of Persia.--E.
[10] It is probable that this Balhara, or king of the people with bored
ears, which plainly means the Indians, was the Zamorin or Emperor of Calicut;
who, according to the reports of the most ancient Portuguese writers concerning
India, was acknowledged as a kind of emperor in the Indies, six hundred
years before they discovered the route to India by the Cape of Good Hope.--Harris.
The original editor of this voyage in English, Harris, is certainly
mistaken in this point. The Balhara was the sovereign of Southern Seindetic
India; of which dominion Guzerat was the principal province.--E.
[11] This is a very early notice of the construction and use of clocks,
or machinery to indicate divisions of time, by means of weights.--E.

Having very carefully examined the book I was desired to peruse, that
I might confirm what the author relates so far as he agrees with what I
have learnt concerning the affairs of navigation, the kingdoms on the coast,
and the state of the countries of which he treats, and that I might add
what I have elsewhere collected concerning these matters: I find that this
book was composed in the year of the Hegira 237, and that the accounts
given by the author are conformable with what I have heard from merchants
who have sailed from Irak or Persia, through these seas. I find
also all that the author has written to be agreeable to truth, except some
few passages, in which he has been misinformed. Speaking of the custom,
of the Chinese in setting meat before their dead, and believing that the
dead had eaten, we had been told the same thing, and once believed it;
but have since learnt, from a person of undoubted credit, that this notion
is entirely groundless, as well as that the idolaters believe their idols
speak to them. From that creditable person we have likewise been informed,
that the affairs of China wear quite a different aspect since those days:
and since much has been related to explain why our voyages to China have
been interrupted, and how the country has been ruined, many customs abolished,
and the empire divided, I shall here declare what I know of that revolution.

The great troubles which have embroiled the affairs of this empire,
putting a stop to the justice and righteousness there formerly practised,
and interrupting the ordinary navigation from Siraff to China, was occasioned
by the revolt of an officer named Baichu, in high employment, though not
of the royal family. He began by gathering together a number of vagabonds,
and disorderly people, whom he won to his party by his liberalities, and
formed into a considerable body of troops. With these he committed hostilities
in many parts of the country, to the great loss of the inhabitants; and
having greatly increased his army, and put himself into a condition to
attempt greater things, he began to entertain a design of subduing the
whole empire, and marched direct for Canfu, one of the most noted cities
in China, and at that time the great port for our Arabian commerce. This
city stands upon a great river, some days sail from the sea, so that the
water there is fresh. The citizens shut their gates against him, and he
was obliged to besiege it a great while; but at length he became master
of the city, and put all the inhabitants to the sword. There are persons
fully acquainted with the affairs of China, who assure us, that besides
the Chinese who were massacred upon this occasion, there perished one hundred
and twenty thousand Mahomedans, Jews, Christians, and Parsees, who were
there on account of traffic; and as the Chinese are exceedingly nice in
the registers they keep of foreigners dwelling among them, this number
may be considered as authentic. This took place in the year of the hegira
264, or of Christ 877. He also cut down the mulberry trees, which are carefully
cultivated by the Chinese for their leaves, on which the silk worms are
fed; and owing to this, the trade of silk has tailed, and that manufacture,
which used to be much prosecuted in all the countries under the Arabian
government, is quite at a stand.

Having sacked and destroyed Canfu, he possessed himself of many other
cities, which he demolished, having first slain most of the inhabitants,
in the hope that he might involve all the members of the royal family in
this general massacre, that no one might remain to dispute with him for
the empire. He then advanced to Cumdan,[1] the capital city, whence the
emperor was obliged to make a precipitate retreat to the city of Hamdu,
on the frontiers towards Thibet. Puffed up with these great successes,
Baichu made himself master of almost the whole country, there being no
one able to dispute his authority. At length the emperor wrote to the king
of the Tagazgaz in Turkestan, with whom he was in some degree allied by
marriage, imploring his assistance to subdue the rebellion. The king of
the Tagazgaz dispatched his son, at the head of a very numerous army, into
China, and after a long and arduous contest, and many battles, Baichu was
utterly defeated, and it was never known afterwards what became of him;
some believing that he fell in the last battle, while others supposed that
he ended his days in a different manner. The emperor of China now returned
to his capital, much weakened and dispirited in consequence of the embezzlement
of his treasures, and the loss of the best of his officers and troops,
and the horrible devastations, calamities, and losses which his empire
had sustained; yet he made himself master of all the provinces which had
revolted from his authority. He would not, however, lay his hands upon
the goods of his subjects, notwithstanding the exhausted state of his finances,
but satisfied himself with what was still left in his coffers, and the
small remains of the public money that was to be found, requiring nothing
from his subjects, but what they were willing to give, and only demanding
obedience to the laws and to his authority, considering that they had been
already severely oppressed in consequence of the rebellion. Thus, China
became like the empire of Alexander, after the defeat and death of Darius,
when he divided the provinces among his chiefs, who became so many kings.
For now, each of the Chinese princes, or viceroys, joined themselves
into petty alliances, making wars among themselves without the authority
of the emperor; and when the stronger had subdued the weaker, and acquired
possession of his province, the subjects of the vanquished prince were
unmercifully wasted and plundered, and even barbarously devoured: a cruel
practice allowed by the laws of their religion, which even permit human
flesh to be exposed to public sale in the markets. There arose from all
these confusions many unjust dealings with the merchants; and there was
no grievance so intolerable, or treatment so bad, but what was exercised
upon the Arab merchants, and captains of ships, extorting from them what
was altogether uncustomary, seizing upon their effects, and behaving towards
them quite contrary to all the ancient usages; so that our merchants were
forced to return in crowds to Siraff and Oman[2].

The punishment of married persons, convicted of adultery, as well as
for the crimes of homicide and theft, is as follows: The hands are bound
fast together, and forced backwards over the head, till they rest on the
neck. The right foot is then fastened to the right hand, and the left foot
to the left hand, and all drawn tight together behind the back, so that
the criminal is incapable to stir; and by this torture the neck is dislocated,
the joints of the arms start from their sockets, and the thigh bones are
disjointed;--in short, the tortured wretch would soon expire without any
farther process; yet, in that state, he is beaten by bamboos till at the
last gasp, and is then abandoned to the people, who devour the body.

There are women in China who refuse to marry, and prefer to live a dissolute
life of perpetual debauchery. A woman who has made this election, presents
herself in full audience before the commanding officer of a city, declares
her aversion to marriage, and desires to be enrolled among the public women.
Her name is then inserted in the register, with the name of her family,
the place of her abode, the number and description of her jewels, and the
particulars of her dress. She has then a string put round her neck, to
which is appended a copper ring, marked with the king's signet, and she
receives a writing, certifying that she is received into the list of prostitutes,
and by which she is entitled to a pension from the public treasury of so
many falus yearly, and in which the punishment of death is denounced
against any man who should take her to wife. Every year, regulations are
published respecting these women, and such as have grown old in the service
are struck off the list. In the evening, these women walk abroad in dresses
of different colours, unveiled, and prostitute themselves to all strangers
who love debauchery; but the Chinese themselves send for them to their
houses, whence they do not depart till next morning.

The Chinese coin no money, except the small pieces of copper like those
we [[call?]] falus, nor will they allow gold and silver to be coined
into specie, like our dinars and drams; for they allege that a thief may
carry off ten thousand pieces of gold from the house of an Arab, and almost
as many of silver, without being much burthened, and so ruin the man who
suffers the loss; but in the house of a Chinese, he can only carry off
ten thousand falus at the most, which do not make above ten meticals
or gold dinars in value. These pieces of copper are alloyed with some other
metal, and are about the size of a dram, or the piece of silver called
bagli,
having a large hole in the middle to string them by. A thousand of them
are worth a metical or gold dinar; and they string them by thousands, with
a knot distinguishing the hundreds. All their payments, whether for land,
furniture, merchandize, or any thing else, are made in this money, of which
there are some pieces at Siraff, inscribed with Chinese characters. The
city of Canfu is built of wood and canes interwoven, just like our lattice-work
of split canes, the whole washed over with a kind of varnish made of hempseed,
which becomes as white as milk, having a wonderfully fine gloss. There
are no stairs in their houses, which are all of one storey, and all their
valuables are placed in chests upon wheels, which in case of fire can easily
be drawn from place to place, without any hinderance from stairs.

The inferior officers of the cities, and those commonly who have the
direction of the customs and of the treasury, are almost all eunuchs, some
of whom have been captured on the frontiers and made so, while others are
so treated by their fathers, and sent as presents to the emperors. These
officers are at the head of the principal affairs of state, and have the
management of the emperor's private affairs, and of the treasury; and those,
particularly, who are sent to Canfu, are selected from this class. It is
customary for them, and for the viceroys or governors of the cities, to
appear abroad from time to time in solemn procession. On these occasions,
they are preceded by men who carry great pieces of wood, like those used
in the Levant instead of bells by the Christians, on which they make a
noise which is heard at a great distance, upon which every person gets
out of the way of the prince or eunuch. Even if a man is at his door, he
goes in, and keeps his door shut till the great personage has gone by.
Thus, not a soul is in the way, and this is enjoined that they may strike
a dread into the people, and be held in veneration; and the people are
not allowed to see them often, lest they should grow so familiar as to
speak to them.. All these officers wear very magnificent dresses of silk,
so fine that none such is brought into the country of the Arabs, as the
Chinese hold it at a very high price. One of our chief merchants, a man
of perfect credibility, waited upon an eunuch who had been sent to Canfu,
to purchase some goods from the country of the Arabs. The eunuch had upon
his breast a short and beautiful silk vest, which was under another silk
vest, and seemed to have two other vests over that again; and perceiving
that the Arab eyed him very steadfastly, he asked him the cause; and being
told that he admired the beauty of the little vest under his other garments,
the eunuch laughed, and holding out his sleeve to him, desired him to count
how many vests he had above that which he so much admired. He did so, and
found five, one over the other, and the little rich vest undermost. These
garments are all wove of raw silk, which has never been washed or fulled;
and those worn by the princes or governors are still richer, and more exquisitely
wrought.

The Chinese surpass all nations in all arts, and particularly in painting,
and they perform such perfect work, as others can but faintly imitate.
When an artificer has finished a piece, he carries it to the prince's palace
to demand the reward which he thinks he deserves, for the beauty of his
performance; and the custom is for the prince to order the work to be left
at the gate of the palace for a whole year, and if in that time no person
finds a just fault in the piece, the artificer is rewarded, and admitted
into the body of artists; but if any fault is discovered, the piece is
rejected, and the workman sent off without reward. It happened once, that
one of these artists painted an ear of corn, with a bird perched upon it,
and his performance was very much admired. This piece, stood exposed to
public view as usual, and one day a crooked fellow going past, found fault
with the picture, and was immediately conducted to the prince or governor,
who sent for the painter that he might hear his piece criticized. Being
asked what fault he had to find, he answered, that every one knew that
a bird never settles on an ear of corn, but it must bend under the weight;
whereas this painter had represented the ear of corn bolt upright, though
loaded with a bird. The objection was held just, and the painter was dismissed
without reward. By such means, they excite their workmen to aim at perfection,
and to be exceedingly nice and circumspect in what they undertake, and
to apply their whole genius to any thing that has to go through their hands.

There dwelt at Basra one Ebn Wahab, of the tribe of Koreish, descended
from Hebar, the son of Al Asud, who quitted Basra when it was sacked, and
came to Siraff, where he saw a ship preparing to sail for China.[3] The
humour took him to embark in this ship for China, and he had the curiosity
to visit the emperor's court. Leaving Canfu, he went to Cumdan, after a
journey of two months, and remained a long while at the court, where he
presented several petitions to the emperor, setting forth, that he was
of the family of the prophet of the Arabs. After a considerable interval,
the emperor ordered him to be lodged in a house appointed for the purpose,
and to be supplied with every thing he might need. The emperor then wrote
to the governor of Canfu, to inquire carefully among the Arabian merchants
respecting this man's pretensions; and receiving a full confirmation of
his extraction, received him to an audience, and made him rich presents,
with which he returned to Irak.

When, we saw him, this man was much advanced in years, but had his senses
perfectly. He told us that the emperor asked him many questions respecting
the Arabs, and particularly how they had destroyed the kingdom of the Persians.
Ebn Wahab answered, that they had done it by the assistance of God, and
because the Persians were immersed in idolatry, adoring the sun, moon,
and stars, instead of the Almighty. The emperor said, that they had conquered
the most illustrious kingdom of the earth, the best cultivated, the most
populous, the most pregnant of fine wits, and of the highest fame. The
emperor then asked Ebn Wahab what account the Arabs made of the other kings
of the earth; to which he answered that he knew them not. Then the emperor
caused the interpreter to say, we admit but five great kings. He who is
master of Irak has the kingdom of widest extent, which is surrounded by
the territories of other kings, and we find him called King of Kings. After
him is the emperor of China, who is styled King of Mankind, for no king
has more absolute authority over his subjects, and no people can be more
dutiful and submissive than his subjects. Next is the king of the Turks,
whose kingdom borders on China, and who is styled the King of Lions. Next
is the king of the Elephants, who is king of the Indies, whom we call King
of Wisdom. Last of all is the King of Greece, whom we call King of Men,
as there are no men of better manners, or comlier appearance, on the face
of the earth, than his subjects.

Ebn Wahab was then asked if he knew his lord and master the prophet
Mohammed, and if he had seen him? How could that be, said Wahab, seeing
that he is with God? Being then asked what manner of person he was; he
answered that he was very handsome. Then a great box was brought, out of
which another box was taken, and the interpreter was desired to shew him
his lord and master. Ebn Wahab, upon looking in, saw the images of the
prophets and the emperor observing him to move his lips, desired him to
be asked the reason; on which he said he was praying inwardly in honour
of the prophets. Being asked how he knew them, he said by the representation
of their histories; as for instance, one was Noah and his ark, who were
saved from the flood with those who were with them. The emperor laughed,
and said he was right in regard to Noah, but denied the universal deluge;
which, though it had covered part of the earth, did not reach China or
the Indies. On Wahab observing that the next was Moses, with his rod, and
the children of Israel; the emperor agreed that their country was of small
extent, and that Moses had extirpated the ancient inhabitants. Wahab then
pointed out Jesus upon the ass, accompanied by his apostles. To this the
emperor said, that he had been a short time upon earth, all his transactions
having very little exceeded the space of thirty months. On seeing the image
of Mohammed riding on a camel, and his companions about him, with Arabian
shoes and leathern girdles, Wahab wept; and being asked the reason, he
answered, it was on seeing his prophet and lord, who was his cousin also.
The emperor then asked concerning the age of the world; and Wahab answered,
that opinions varied on the subject, as some reckoned it to be six thousand
years old, while some would not allow so many, and others extended it to
a greater antiquity. Being asked why he had deserted his own king, to whom
he was so near in blood; he gave information of the revolutions which had
happened at Basra, which had forced him to fly to Siraff; where, hearing
of the glory of the emperor of China, and the abundance of every thing
in his empire, he had been impelled by curiosity to visit it; but that
he intended soon to return to the kingdom of his cousin, where he should
make a faithful report of the magnificence of China, the vast extent of
its provinces, and of the kind usage he had met with. This seemed to please
the emperor, who made him rich presents, and ordered him to be conducted
to Canfu on post horses.[4] He wrote also to the governor of that city,
commanding him to be treated with honour; and to the governors of the provinces
through which he had to pass, to shew him every civility. He was treated
handsomely during the remainder of his stay in China, plentifully supplied
with all necessaries, and honoured with many presents.[5]

From the information of Ebn Wahab, we learn that Cumdan, where the emperor
of China keeps his court, is a very large and extremely populous city,
divided into two parts by a very long and broad street. That the emperor,
his chief ministers, the supreme judge, the eunuchs, the soldiery, and
all belonging to the imperial household, dwelt in that part of the city
which is on the right hand eastward; and that the people were not admitted
into that part of the city, which is watered by canals from different rivers,
the borders of which are, planted with trees, and adorned by magnificent
palaces. That portion of the city on the left hand, westwards from the
great street, is inhabited by the ordinary kind of people, and the merchants,
where also are great squares and markets for all the necessaries of life.
At day-break every morning, the officers of the royal household, with the
inferior servants, purveyors, and the domestics of the grandees of the
court, come into that division of the city, some on horseback, and others
on foot, to the public markets, and the shops of those who deal in all
sorts of goods, where they buy whatever they want, and do not return again
till their occasions call them back next morning. The city is very pleasantly
situate in the midst of a most fertile soil, watered by several rivers,
and hardly deficient in any thing except palm trees, which grow not there.

In our time a discovery has been made, of a circumstance quite new and
unknown to our ancestors. No one ever imagined that the great sea which
extends from the Indies to China had any communication with the sea of
Syria. Yet we have heard, that in the sea of Rum, or the Mediterranean,
there was found the wreck of an Arabian ship, which had been shattered
by a tempest, in which all her men had perished. Her remains were driven
by the wind and weather into the sea of the Chozars, and thence by the
canal of the Mediterranean sea, and were at last thrown upon the coast
of Syria. Hence it is evident, that the sea surrounds all the country of
China and Sila or Cila, the uttermost parts of Turkestan, and the country
of the Chozars, and that it communicates by the strait with that which
washes the coast of Syria. This is proved by the structure of the wreck;
of which the planks were not nailed or bolted, like all those built in
the Mediterranean, or on the coast of Syria, but joined together in an
extraordinary manner, as if sewed, and none but the ships of Siraff are
so fastened. We have also heard it reported, that ambergris has been found
on the coast of Syria, which seems hard to believe, and was unknown to
former times. If this be true, it is impossible that amber should have
been thrown up on the sea of Syria, but by the sea of Aden and Kolsum,
which has communication with the seas where amber is found. And as God
has put a separation between these seas, it must have necessarily been,
that this amber was driven from the Indian Seas into the others, in the
same direction with the vessel of Siraff.[6]

The province of Zapage is opposite to China, and distant from thence
a month's sail or less, if the wind be fair. The king of this country is
styled Mehrage, and his dominions are said to be 900 leagues in circumference,
besides which, he commands over many islands which lie around; so that,
altogether, this kingdom is above 1000 leagues in extent. One of these
islands is called Serbeza, which is said to be 400 leagues in compass;
another is called Rhami, which is 800 leagues round, and produces red-wood,
camphor, and many other commodities. In the same kingdom is the island
of Cala, which is the mid passage between China and the country of the
Arabs. This island is 80 leagues in circumference, and to it they bring
all sorts of merchandize, as aloes wood of several kinds, camphor, sandal
wood, ivory, the wood called cabahi, ebony, red-wood, all sorts
of spice, and many others; and at present the trade is carried on between
this island and that of Oman. The Mehrage is sovereign over all these islands;
and that of Zapage, in which he resides, is extremely fertile, and so populous,
that the towns almost touch each other, no part of the land being uncultivated.
The palace of the king or Mehrage, stands on a river as broad as the Tigris
at Bagdat or Bassora; but the sea intercepts its course, and drives its
waters back with the tide; yet during the ebb the fresh water flows out
a good way into the sea. The river water is let into a small pond, close
to the king's palace, and every morning the master of the household brings
an ingot of gold, wrought in a particular manner, and throws it into the
pond, in presence of the king. When the king dies, his successor causes
all these ingots, which have been accumulating during the reign of his
predecessor, to be taken out; and the sums arising from this great quantity
of gold are distributed among the royal household, in certain proportions,
according to their respective ranks, and the surplus is given to the poor.

Komar is the country whence the aloes wood, which we call Hud al Komari,
is brought; and it is a very populous kingdom, of which the inhabitants
are very courageous. In this country, the boundless commerce with women
is forbidden, and indeed it has no wine. The kingdoms of Zapage and Komar
are about ten or twenty days easy sail from each other, and the kingdoms
were in peace with other when the following event is said, in their ancient
histories, to have occurred. The young and high-spirited king of Komar
was one day in his palace, which looks upon a river much like the Euphrates,
at the entrance, and is only a day's journey from the sea. One day, in
a discourse with his prime minister, the conversation turned upon the glory
and population of the kingdom of the Mehrage, and the multitude of its
dependent islands, when the king of Komar expressed a wish to see the head
of the Mehrage of Zapage on a dish before him. The minister endeavoured
to dissuade him from so unjust and rash an attempt; but the king afterwards
proposed the same exploit to the other officers of his court. Intelligence
of this project was conveyed to the Mehrage, who was a wise and active
prince, of consummate experience, and in the flower of his age; and who
immediately ordered a thousand small ships to be fitted out, with all necessary
arms and provisions, and manned with as many of his best troops as they
were able to transport; carefully concealing the purpose of this armament,
but giving out that he meant to visit the different islands under his authority,
and even caused letters to be written to the tributary kings of these islands
to prepare for his reception.

When every thing was in readiness, he sailed over to the kingdom of
Komar, the king of which, and all his courtiers, were a set of effeminate
creatures, who did nothing all day long but view their faces in mirrors,
and pick their teeth. The Mehrage landed his troops without delay, and
immediately invested the palace, in which the king was made prisoner, all
his attendants having fled without fighting. Then the Mehrage caused proclamation
to be made, granting entire security of life and property to all the inhabitants
of the country; and seating himself on the throne, caused the captive king
and the prime minister to be brought into his presence. Addressing himself
to the fallen monarch, he demanded his reasons for entertaining a project
so unjust, and beyond his power to execute, and what were his ultimate
intentions if he had succeeded. To this the king of Komar made no answer;
and the Mehrage ordered his head to be struck off. To the minister, the
Mehrage made many compliments, for the good advice he had given his master,
and ordered him to place the person who best deserved to succeed upon the
vacant throne; and then departed to his own dominions, without doing the
smallest violence or injury to the kingdom of Komar. The news of this action
being reported to the kings of China and the Indies, added greatly to their
respect for the Mehrage; and from that time, it has been the custom for
the kings of Komar to prostrate themselves every morning towards the country
of Zapage, in honour of the Mehrage[7].

All the kings of China and the Indies believe in the metempsychosis,
or transmigration of souls, as an article of their religion, of which the
following story, related by a person of credibility, is a singular instance.
One of these princes having viewed himself in a mirror, after recovering
from the small-pox, and noticing how dreadfully his face was disfigured,
observed, that no person had ever remained in his body after such a change,
and as the soul passes instantly into another body, he was determined to
separate Ha soul from its present frightful body, that he might pass into
another. Wherefore he commanded his nephew to mount the throne, and calling
for a sharp and keen scymitar, ordered his own head to be cut off, that
his soul might be set free, to inhabit a new body. His orders were complied
with, and his body was burnt, according to the custom of the country.

Until the late revolution had reduced them to their present state of
anarchy, the Chinese were wonderfully regular and exact in every thing
relative to government; of which the following incident affords a striking
example. A merchant of Chorassan, who had dealt largely in Irak,
and who embarked from thence for China, with a quantity of goods,
had a dispute at Canfu with an eunuch, who was sent to purchase some ivory,
and other goods for the emperor, and at length the dispute ran so high,
that the merchant refused to sell him his goods. This
eunuch was keeper of the imperial treasury, and presumed so much on the
favour and confidence which he enjoyed with his master, that he took his
choice of all the goods he wanted from the merchant by force, regardless
of every thing that the merchant could say. The merchant went privately
from Canfu to Cumdan, the residence of the emperor, which is two months
journey; and immediately went to the string of the bell, mentioned
in the former section, which he pulled. According to the custom of the
country, he was conveyed to a place at the distance of ten days journey,
where he was committed to prison for two months; after which he was brought
before the viceroy of the province, who represented to him, that he had
involved himself in a situation which would tend to his utter ruin, and
even the loss of his life, if he did not speak out the real truth: Because
there were ministers and governors appointed to distribute justice to all
strangers, who were ready to see him righted; and if the nature of the
wrongs, which he had to represent, did not appear such as to entitle him
to this application to the emperor, he would assuredly be put to death,
as a warning to others not to follow his example. The viceroy, therefore,
advised him to withdraw his appeal, and to return immediately to Canfu.
The rule on such occasions was, that, if the party should endeavour to
recede after this exhortation, he would have received fifty blows of a
bamboo, and have been immediately sent out of the country: but if he persisted
in his appeal, he was immediately admitted to an audience of the emperor.
The merchant strenuously persisted in his demand for justice, and was at
length admitted to the presence of the emperor, to whom he related the
injustice of the eunuch, in taking away his goods by force. Upon this,
the merchant was thrown, into prison, and the emperor ordered his prime
minister to write to the governor of Canfu, to make strict inquiry into
the complaints which he had exhibited against the eunuch, and to make a
faithful report of all the circumstances; and he, at the same time, gave
similar orders to three other principal officers, to make the same inquiry,
all separate and unknown to each other.

These officers, who are called of the right, of the left, and of the
centre, according to their ranks, have the command of the imperial forces,
under the prime minister; they are entrusted with the guard of the emperor's
person: and when, he takes the field, on any military enterprise, or on
any other account, these officers are stationed near him, each according
to his rank. All of these made accordingly the strictest inquiries into
the allegations of the merchant, and all separately gave in their reports,
assuring the emperor that these complaints were just and well-founded:
and these were followed and confirmed by many other informations. The eunuch
was in consequence deprived of his office of treasurer, and all his effects
were confiscated; on which occasion the emperor addressed him as follows;
"Death ought to have been your doom, for giving occasion of complaint against
me to this man, who hath come from Chorassan, which is on the borders of
my empire. He hath been in the country of the Arabs, whence he came into
the kingdoms of the Indies, and thence into my empire, seeking his advantage
by trade; and you would have occasioned him to return across all these
regions, saying to all the people in his way, that he had been abused and
stripped of his substance in China. In consideration of your former services,
and the rank you have held in my household, I grant your life; but as you
have not discharged your duty in regard to the living, I will confer upon
you the charge of the dead." The eunuch was accordingly sent to take the
custody of the imperial tombs, and to remain there for the remainder of
his life.

Before the late commotions, the good order observed in the administration
of justice, and the majesty of their tribunals, were very admirable. To
fill these, the Chinese chose men who were perfectly versant in the laws;
men of sincerity, and zealous in the cause of justice, who were not to
be biassed by the interference of the great, and who always administered
the laws with impartiality, neither oppressing the poor, nor accepting
bribes from the rich. When any one was to be promoted to the office of
principal judge, he was previously sent to all the chief cities of the
empire, to remain a month or two in each, inquiring minutely into the various
customs and affairs of the people, and informing himself of all such persons
as were worthy of being credited in their testimony, that his judgment
might be regulated in the future discharge of his high office by this preliminary
knowledge. After going through all the cities in this manner, and making
some stay in those which are most considerable, he repaired to the imperial
court, and was invested with the dignity of supreme judge. To him the nomination
of all the other judges was confided, after acquainting the emperor with
the names of all who, in his estimation, were most worthy of exercising
jurisdiction in the various cities and provinces. Every day, the supreme
judge causes proclamation to be made, that of any man has been wronged
by the viceroy or governor, or by any of his relations or officers, or
any other person, he shall receive ample justice. A viceroy or governor
is never degraded, except by letters issued from the council, or divan
of kings, and this is done only for some flagrant malversation, or for
the refusal or delay of justice. The posts of judicature being conferred
upon none but men of probity and justice, good order is efectually maintained.

The province of Chorassan is almost on the borders of China. From China
to Sogd is about two months journey, through impracticable deserts of sand,
where there is no water; for which reason the Chorassanians can make no
irruptions into China. The most westerly province of China is Medu, which
borders on Thibet, and the two nations are often at war. A person who had
been in China, informed us, that he had seen a man at Canfu, who had traveled
from Samare, all the way on foot, through all the cities in China, with
a vessel of musk on his back for sale; which he might easily do, as the
part of Thibet, which produces musk, is contiguous to China. The Chinese
carry off as many of the animals which produce musk as they can procure;
but the musk of Thibet is far better than that of China, because the animal
feeds on aromatic plants in the mountains of Thibet, while in China it
has to subsist upon the ordinary pastures; and because the inhabitants
of Thibet preserve their pods of musk in its natural state of purity, while
the Chinese adulterate all that gets into their hands; for which reason
the musk of Thibet is in great request among the Arabs. The most exquisite
of all the sorts of musk, is that which the musk animals leave behind them,
in rubbing themselves on the rocks of their native mountains. The humour
whence the musk is generated, falls down towards the navel of the animal,
where it gathers into tumors like grumous blood; and when this tumor is
ripe, it produces a painful itching, on which the animal rubs himself against
rocks or stones till he bursts the tumor, and the contents run out and
coagulate on the stone; after which, the wound heals, and the humour gathers
again as before. There are men in Thibet who make it their business to
collect this species of musk, which they preserve in bladders, and which,
having ripened, naturally surpasses all others in goodness, just as ripe
fruit exceeds in flavour that which is pulled green. There is another way
of procuring musk, either by ensnaring the animals, or shooting them with
arrows; but the hunters often cut out the bags before the musk is ripe
or fully elaborated, in which case, the musk at first has a bad scent,
till the humour thickens, after which it turns to good musk, though this
sometimes takes a long while. The musk animal is like our roebuck, his
skin and colour the same, with slender legs, and smooth slightly bent horns;
having on each side two small white teeth, about half a finger-length,
which rise about his muzzle, not much unlike the form of the teeth of the
elephant, and by which he is distinguished from other roebucks.

The letters from the emperor of China, to the viceroys, governors, eunuchs,
and lieutenants, are conveyed on post-horses, which are distinguished by
cut tails, and these are disposed at regular stations, all over the empire,
almost like the posts among the Arabs. In China, every man, from the emperor
to the meanest of the people, makes water standing;[8] and for this purpose,
persons of dignity have gilded hollow canes, a cubit long, to convey their
water to a distance. They are of opinion, that pains in the kidneys, strangury,
and even the stone, are occasioned by urining in a sitting posture, as
the reins cannot free themselves absolutely from evil humours, except by
evacuating in an erect position. They do not mould the heads of new born
infants into a round form as we do, as they allege that this practice injures
the brain, and impairs the senses. They suffer their hair to grow, which
is carefully combed. The nation is divided into tribes, like those of the
Arabs and some others, and no man ever marries in his own tribe: just as
the children of Thummim among the Arabs never take a wife from that tribe.
Or, for example, a man of the tribe of Robayat marries a daughter of the
tribe Modzar, and a Modzar marries a Robayat; and they are of opinion,
that such alliances add to the dignity and power of their children.

In the kingdom of the Balhara, and all the other kingdoms of the Indies,
there are men who burn themselves in consequence of their belief in the
doctrine of transmigration. When a man has come to this resolution, he
asks leave of the king, which being obtained, he goes in procession round
all the public squares of the city, and proceeds to the place appointed,
where a pile of dry wood is ready for the purpose, having many persons
all round to feed the fire, which blazes prodigiously. At last the person
comes forward, preceded by a number of instruments, and moves round the
pile in the midst of his friends and relations. During this ceremony, some
person places on his head a garland of straw, or dry herbs, filled with
burning coals, on which they pour sandrach, which takes fire as
strongly as naphtha; notwithstanding of which, he continues his progress
without betraying any sense of pain, or change of countenance, though the
crown of his head be all on fire, and the stench of his burning flesh is
felt all round. At length, he comes up to the pile, and throws himself
in, where he is soon reduced to ashes. A credible person says, he once
saw an Indian burn himself; and when he came near the pile, he drew out
a cangiar, or sharp knife, with which he ripped himself open, and pulling
out the lap of his liver with his left hand, cut off a piece of it with
his cangiar, and gave it to one of his brothers, talking all the time with
the most invincible contempt of death and torture, and at length leaped
into the fire, in his passage to hell.

At the accession of some kings of the Indies, the following ceremony
is observed: A large quantity of rice is dressed and spread out upon leaves
of mousa, in presence of the king. Then three or four hundred persons come,
of their own accord, without any constraint whatever; and after the king
has eaten of the rice, he gives some of it to all that come forwards in
succession, which they eat in his presence; and by this ceremony, they
engage to burn themselves on the day when this king dies or is slain, and
they punctually fulfil their promise.

In the mountainous parts of India, there are tribes who differ little
from those we call Kanisians and Jelidians, and who are addicted to all
manner of superstition and vice; between whom, and the inhabitants of the
people [[places?]] on the coast, there subsists great emulation, each daring
the others to imitate them in the performance of strange superstitious
tortures. There once came a man from the mountains on this errand, who
gathered a multitude of the inhabitants of the coast to the following strange
exhibition, daring them to imitate him, or otherwise to acknowledge themselves
overcome. He sat down in a place planted with canes, and caused a strong
one to be forcibly bent down, to which he strongly fastened the hairs of
his head. "Now," said he, "I am going to cut off my own head with this
cangiar; and as soon as it is severed from my body, let go the cane, and
when my head flies up into the air, I will laugh, and you shall hear me."
But the people of the coast had not courage to imitate him.[9] The person
who related this, did it without emotion or wonder; and in our times, these
facts are generally known, as this part of the Indies is in the neighbourhood
of the country of the Arabs, and we hear from thence every day.

In the Indies, they burn their dead; and it is customary for men and
women to desire their families to throw them into the fire or to drown
them, when they are grown old, or perceive themselves to sink under the
pressure of disease, firmly believing that they are to return into other
bodies. It has often happened, in the isle of Serendib, where there is
a mine of precious stones in a mountain, a pearl-fishery, and other extraordinary
things, that an Indian would come into the bazar or market-place, armed
with a kris, and seize upon the most wealthy merchant there present,
leading him out of the market, through a throng of people, holding the
kris to his throat, while no one dared to attempt his rescue, as the Indian
was sure, in such a case, to kill the merchant, and make away with himself;
and when he had got the merchant out of the city, the Indian obliged him
to redeem his life with a sum of money. To put an end to such outrages,
an order was issued to seize such trespassers; but on attempting to execute
this order, several merchants were killed, both Arabs and Indians, and
the order was obliged to be repealed.

In the mountains of Serendib, precious stones are found of various colours,
red, green, and yellow,[10] most of which are washed from caverns or crevices,
by rains and torrents. In these places, the king has officers to watch
over the people who gather the precious stones. In some places, these are
dug out of mines, like the ores of metals, and the rock has often to be
broken to come at the precious stones which it contains. The king of Serendib
makes laws concerning the religion and government of the country; and there
are assemblies held of doctors and learned men, like those of Hadithis
among the Arabs, to which the Indians repair, and write down what they
hear of the lives of their prophets, and the expositions of their laws.
In this island, there are temples in which great sums of money are expended
on incense; and in one of these temples, there is a great idol all of pure
gold, but concerning the weight of which travellers are not agreed. In
the same island, there are great numbers of Jews, and persons of many other
sects, even Tanouis, and Manichees, the kings permitting the free exercise
of every religion. At the end of the island are vallies of great extent,
extending quite to the sea, called Gab Serendib, of extreme beauty, and
chequered with groves and plains, water and meads, and blessed with a wholesome
air. A sheep may be there bought for half a dram, and for the same as much
of their drink, made of palm-honey, boiled and prepared with tari,
or toddi, as will suffice for many persons.

The inhabitants are much addicted to gaming, particularly draughts.
Their other principal diversion is cock-fighting, their cocks being very
large, and better provided with spurs than ordinary; and besides this,
the Indians arm them with blades of iron, in the form of cangiars or daggers.
On these combats, they bet gold and silver, lands or farms; and they game
with such fury, that debauchees, and desperate people, often stake the
ends of their fingers, when their other property is exhausted. While at
play for this extraordinary stake, they have a fire by them, on which a
small pot of walnut oil, or oil of sesamum, is kept boiling; and when one
has won a game, he chops off the end of the loser's finger, who immediately
dips the stump into the boiling oil, to stem the blood; and some will persist
so obstinately, as to have all their fingers thus mutilated. Some even
will take a burning wick, and apply it to some member, till the scent of
the burnt flesh is felt all around, while the stoic continues to play,
without betraying the least sense of pain. Both men and women are so exceedingly
addicted to debauchery, that a foreign merchant has been known to send
even for a king's daughter, to attend him at the fishing grounds, in quality
of mistress; wherefore the Mahomedan doctors at Siraff, strictly warn young
people not to go there.

In the Indies there are heavy rains, called jasara, which last
incessantly day and night, for three months every year. The Indians prepare
against these to the best of their power, as they shut themselves up in
their houses during the whole time, all work being then performed within
doors; and during this time, they are subject to ulcers in the soles of
their feet, occasioned by the damps. Yet, these rains are of indispensable
necessity; as, when they fail, the Indians are reduced to the utmost want,
as their rice fields are watered only by the rains. It never rains during
summer. The Indians have doctors, or devout men, named Bramins. They have
poets also, who compose poems filled with the grossest flattery to their
kings and great men. They have also astrologers, philosophers, soothsayers,
men who observe the flight of birds, and others who pretend to the calculation
of nativities, particularly at Kaduge, a great city in the kingdom of Gozar.[11]

There are certain men called Bicar, who go all their lives naked,
and suffer their hair to grow till it hides their hinder parts. They also
allow their nails to grow, till they become pointed and sharp like swords.
Each has a string round his neck, to which hangs an earthen dish, and when
hungry, they go to any house, whence the inhabitants cheerfully supply
them with boiled rice. They have many laws and religious precepts, by which
they imagine that they please God. Part of their devotion consists in building
kans,
or inns, on the highways, for the accommodation of travellers; where also
certain pedlars, or small dealers, are established, from whom the passengers
may purchase what they stand in need of. There are also public women, who
expose themselves to travellers. Some of these are called
women of the
idol, the origin of which institution is this: when a woman has laid
herself under a vow, that she may have children, if she happens to produce
a handsome daughter, she carries her child to the bod,[12] so the
idol is called. When this girl has attained the proper age, she takes an
apartment in the temple, and waits the arrival of strangers, to whom she
prostitutes herself for a certain hire, and delivers her gains to the priest
for the support of the temple. All these things they reckon among their
meritorious deeds. Praised be God who hath freed us from the sins which
defile the people involved in unbelief!

Not very far from Almansur there is a famous idol called Multan, to
which the Indians resort in pilgrimage, from the remotest parts. Some of
the pilgrims bring the odoriferous wood called Hud ul Camruni, so called
from Camrun, where there is excellent aloes-wood. Some of this is worth
200 dinars the mawn, and is commonly marked with a seal, to distinguish
it from another kind of less value. This the devotees give to the priests,
that it may be burnt before the idol, but merchants often buy it from these
priests. There are some Indians, making profession of piety, who go in
search of unknown islands, or those newly discovered, on purpose to plant
cocoa nut trees, and to sink wells for the use of ships. There are people
at Oman who cross to these islands that produce the cocoa nut trees, of
planks made from which they build ships, sewing the planks with yarns made
from the bark of the tree. The mast is made of the same wood, the sails
are formed from the leaves, and the bark is worked up into cordage: and
having thus completed their vessel, they load her with cocoa nuts, which
they bring to Oman for sale.

The country of the Zinges, or Negroes, is of vast extent.[13] These
people commonly sow millet, which is the chief food of the negroes. They
have also sugar-canes and other trees, but their sugar is very black. The
negroes are divided among a great number of kings, who are eternally at
war with each other. Their kings are attended by certain men called Moharamin,
each of whom has a ring in his nose, and a chain round his neck. When about
to join battle with the enemy, each of the Moharamin takes the end of his
neighbour's chain and passes it through the ring in his own nose, by which
the whole are chained together, so that no one can possibly run away. Deputies
are then sent to endeavour to make peace, and if that is done, the chains
are unfastened, and they retire without fighting. But otherwise, when once
the sword is unsheathed, every one of these men must conquer or die on
the spot.[14]

These people have a profound veneration for the Arabs; and when they
meet any one, they fall down before him, saying, "This man comes from the
land of dates," of which they are very fond. They have preachers among
them, who harangue with wonderful ability and perseverance. Some of these
profess a religious life, and are covered with the skins of leopards or
apes. One of these men will gather a multitude of people, to whom he will
preach all day long concerning God, or about the actions of their ancestors.
From this country they bring the leopards skins, called Zingiet, which
are very large and broad, and ornamented with red and black spots.

In this sea is the island of Socotra, whence come the best aloes. This
island is near the land of the Zinges, or Negroes, and is likewise near
Arabia; and most of its inhabitants are Christians, which is thus accounted
for: When Alexander had subdued the empire of Persia, his preceptor, Aristotle,
desired him to search out the island of Socotra, which afforded aloes,
and without which the famous medicine Hiera,[15]could not be compounded;
desiring him likewise to remove the natives and to plant there a colony
of Greeks, who might supply Syria, Greece, and Egypt with aloes. This was
done accordingly; and when God sent Jesus Christ into the world, the Greeks
of this isle embraced the Christian faith, like the rest of their nation,
and have persevered in it to this day, like all the other inhabitants of
the islands.[16]

In the first book, no mention is made of the sea which stretches away
to the right, as ships depart from Oman and the coast of Arabia, to launch
out into the great sea: and the author describes only the sea on the left
hand, in which are comprehended the seas of India and China. In this sea,
to the right as you leave Oman, is the country of Sihar or Shihr, where
frankincense grows, and other countries possessed by the nations of Ad,
Hamyar, Jorham, and Thabatcha, who have the Sonna, in Arabic of very ancient
date, but differing in many things from what is in the hands of the Arabs,
and containing many traditions unknown to us. They have no villages, and
live a very hard and miserably wandering life; but their country extends
almost as far as Aden and Judda on the coast of Yaman, or Arabia the happy.
From Judda, it stretches up into the continent, as far as the coast of
Syria, and ends at Kolzum. The sea at this place is divided by a slip of
land, which God hath fixed as a line of separation between the two seas.[17]
From Kolzum the sea stretches along the coast of the Barbarians, to the
west coast, which is opposite to Yaman, and then along the coast of Ethiopia,
from whence we have the leopard skins of Barbary,[18] which are the best
of all, and the most skilfully dressed; and lastly, along the coast of
Zeilah, whence come excellent amber and tortoiseshell.

When the Siraff ships arrive in the Red Sea, they go no farther than
Judda, whence their cargo is transported to Cairo, or Kahira, by
ships of Kolsum, the pilots of which are acquainted with the navigation
of the upper end of this sea, which is full of rocks up to the water's
edge; because, also, along the coast there are no kings,[19] and scarcely
any inhabitants; and because, every night ships are obliged to put into
some place for safety, for fear of striking on the rocks, or must ride
all night at anchor, sailing only in the day-time. This sea is likewise
subject to very thick fogs, and to violent gales of wind, and is therefore
of very dangerous navigation, and devoid of any safe or pleasant anchorage.
It is not like the seas of India and China, whose bottom is rich with pearls
and ambergris; whose mountains are stored with gold, precious stones, and
ivory; whose coasts produce ebony, redwood, aloes, camphor, nutmegs, cloves,
sandal, and all other spices and aromatics; where parrots and peacocks
are birds of the forest, and in which musk and civet are collected in abundance:
so productive, in short, are these shores of articles of infinite variety,
and inestimable value, that it were vain to endeavour to make any enumeration.

Ambergris is thrown upon this coast by the flux of the sea, but its
origin is unknown. It is found on the coast of the Indies, but the best,
which is of a bluish white, and in round lumps, is got upon the Barbarian
coast: or on the confines of the land of the Negroes, towards Sihar and
that neighbourhood. The inhabitants of that country have camels trained
for the purpose, on which they ride along the shore in moonshine nights,
and when the camels perceive a piece of amber, he bends his knees, on which
the rider dismounts, and secures his prize. There is another kind which
swims on the surface of the sea in great lumps, sometimes as big as the
body of an ox, or somewhat less. When a certain fish, named Tal,
of the whale tribe, sees these floating lumps, he swallows them, and is
thereby killed; and when the people, who are accustomed to this fishery,
see a whale floating on the surface, they know that this whale has swallowed
ambergris, and going out in their boats, they dart their harpoons into
its body, and tow it on shore, and split the animal down the back, to get
out the ambergris. What is found about the belly of the whale is commonly
spoiled by the wet, and has an unpleasant scent; but the ambergris which
is not contaminated by the ordure in the belly of the whale, is perfectly
good.[20]

It is not unusual to employ the vertebrae of this species of whale as
stools; and it is said, there are many houses in the village of Tain, ten
leagues from Siraff, in which the lintels of the doors are made of whale
ribs. An eye-witness told me that he went to see a whale which had been
cast ashore, near Siraff, and found the people mounting on its back by
means of ladders; that they dug pits in different parts of his body, and
when the sun had melted the grease into oil, they collected this, and sold
it to the masters of ships, who mixed it up with some other matter, used
by seamen for the purpose of serving the bottoms of their vessels, and
securing the seams of the planks, to prevent or to stop leaks. This whale-oil
sells for a great deal of money; and the bones of the whale are sold by
the druggists of Bagdat and Bassora.
The pearl oyster is at first a small thin tender substance, resembling
theleaves of the plant called Anjedana, and swims on the surface
of the sea, where it sticks to the sides of ships under water. It there
hardens, grows larger, and becomes covered by a shell; after which it becomes
heavy, and falls to the bottom of the sea, where it subsists, and grows
in a way of which we are ignorant. The included animal resembles a piece
of red flesh, or like the tongue of an animal towards the root, having
no bones, veins, or sinews. One opinion of the production of pearls in
this shell-fish is, that the oyster rises to the surface when it rains,
and, by gaping, catches the drops of rain, which harden into pearls. The
more likely opinion is, that the pearls are generated within the body of
the oyster, for most of them are fixed, and not moveable. Such as are loose
are called seed pearls.

An Arab came once to Bassora with a pearl of great value, which he shewed
to a merchant, and was astonished when he got so large a sum for it as
an hundred drams of silver; with which he purchased corn to carry back
to his own country. But the merchant carried his acquisition to Bagdad,
where he sold it for a large sum of money, by which he was afterwards enabled
to extend his dealings to a great amount. The Arab gave the following account
of the way in which he had found this large pearl: Going one day along
the shore, near Saman, in the district of Bahrein,[21] he saw a fox lying
dead, with something hanging at his muzzle, which held him fast, which
he discovered to be a white lucid shell, in which he found this pearl.
He concluded that the oyster had been thrown ashore by a tempest, and lay
with its shell open on the beach, when the fox, attracted by the smell,
had thrust in his muzzle to get at the meat, on which the oyster closed
its shell, and held him fast till he died: for it is a property of the
oyster never to let go its hold, except forcibly opened by thrusting in
an iron instrument between the shells, carefully guarding its included
pearl, as a mother preserves her child.

The kings of the Indies wear ear-rings of gold, set with precious stones,
and they wear collars of great value, adorned with gems of various colours,
chiefly green and red; yet pearls are most esteemed, and their value surpasses
that of all other jewels, and these they hoard up in their treasuries,
with their most precious things. The grandees of their courts, their great
officers, and the military commanders, wear similar jewels in their collars.
Their dress is a kind of half vest, and they carry parasols made of peacocks
feathers to shade them from the sun, and are surrounded by great trains
of servants.

Among the Indians, there are certain people who never eat two out of
the same dish or even at the same table, on account of some religious opinion.
When these come to Siraf, and are invited by our considerable merchants,
were there a hundred of them more or less, they must each have a separate
dish, without the least communication with the rest. Their kings and principal
persons have fresh tables made for them every day, with little dishes and
plates wove of the cocoa nut leaf, out of which they eat their victuals.
And when their meal is over, the table dishes and plates are all thrown
into the water, together with the fragments of their food; so that they
must have a fresh service for every meal.

To the Indies the merchants used formerly to carry the dinars, called
sindiat, or gold coins of the Sind, which passed there for three of our
dinars, or even more. Thither also were carried emeralds from Egypt, which
were much used for setting in rings.

===========
[1] From the description of this place afterwards, in the travels of
Ebn Wahab, in this article, it appears to have been Nankin.--E.
[2] The chronology of the Chinese history is attended with extreme
difficulty. According to Du Halde: In the reign of the emperor Hi Tseng,
the 18th of the Tsong dynasty, the empire fell into great confusion, in
consequence of heavy taxations, and a great famine occasioned by the inundation
of the rivers, and the ravages of locusts. These things caused many insurrections,
and a rebel, named Hoan Tsia put himself at the head of the malcontents,
and drove the emperor from the imperial city. But he was afterwards defeated,
and the emperor restored. It must be owned that there are about twenty
years difference between the time of the rebellion mentioned in the text,
and the date of the great revolt, as assigned by Du Halde; but whether
the mistake lies in the Arabian manuscript, or in the difficulties of Chinese
chronology, I cannot take upon me to determine; yet both stories probably
relate to the same event.--Harris.
[3] According to Abulpharagius, one Abu Said revolted against the Khaliff
Al Mohated, in the year of the hegira, 285, A.D. 893, and laid waste Bassora.
This date agrees with the story of Ebn Wahab in the text.--Harris.
[4] From this circumstance, it appears probable that the great canal
of China was not then constructed.--E.
[5] Some circumstances in this very interesting detail have been a
little curtailed. If Abu Zaid had been a man of talents, he might surely
have acquired and transmitted more useful information from this traveller;
who indeed seems to have been a poor drivelling zelot.--E.
[6] There is a vast deal of error in this long paragraph. It certainly
was impossible to ascertain the route or voyage of the wreck, which was
said
to have been cast away on the coast of Syria. If it could have been ascertained
to have come from the sea of the Chozars, or the Euxine, by the canal of
Constantinople, and the Egean, into the gulf of Syria, and actually was
utterly different from the build of the Mediterranean, it may or must have
been Russian. If it certainly was built at Siraff, some adventurous Arabian
crew must have doubled the south of Africa from the east, and perished
when they had well nigh immortalized their fame, by opening up the passage
by sea from Europe to India: And as the Arabian Moslems very soon navigated
to Zanguebar, Hinzuan, and Madagascar, where their colonies still remain,
this list is not impossible, though very unlikely. The ambergris may have
proceeded from a sick cachalot that had wandered into the Mediterranean.
The north-east passage around the north of Asia and Europe, which is
adduced by the commentator, in Harris's Collection, is now thoroughly known
to be impracticable.--E.
[7] It is difficult to say anything certain of the countries to which
this story relates; which may have been some of the islands now called
Philipines, or perhaps some of the islands in the straits of Sunda.--Harris.
Such is the opinion of the editor of Harris's Collection. But I am
disposed, especially from the rivers mentioned, to consider Zapage as Pegu;
and that Malacca, Sumatra, and Java, were the dependent islands; and particularly,
that Malacca, as the great mart of early trade, though actually no island,
was the Cala of Abu Zeid. Siam, or Cambodia may have been the kingdom of
Komar.--E.
[8] This alludes to the custom of the Arabs, and other orientals, to
squat upon this occasion.--E.
[9] It is presumable, that this was a mere bravado, in the full confidence
that no one would be found sufficiently foolhardy to engage to follow the
example. It is needless to say, that the promise of laughing aloud could
not have been performed; so that any one might have safely accepted the
challenge, conditioning for the full performance of the vaunt.--E.
[10] Rubies, emeralds, and topazes.--E.
[11] Obviously Canoge, in Bengal.--E.
[12] Buddah, the principal god of an extensive sect, now chiefly confined
to Ceylon, and India beyond the Ganges.--E.
[13] The author makes here an abrupt transition to the eastern coast
of Africa, and calls it the country of the Zinges; congeneric with the
country of Zanguebar, and including Azania, Ajen, and Adel, on the north;
and Inhambane, Sabia, Sofala, Mocaranga, Mozambique, and Querimba, to the
south; all known to, and frequented by the Arabs.--E.
[14] This incredible story may have originated from an ill-told account
of the war bulls of the Caffres, exaggerated into fable, after the usual
manner of the Arabs, always fond of the marvellous.--E.
[15] It is somewhat singular to find this ancient Arabian author mentioning
the first word of the famous Hiera Picra, or Holy Powder; a compound
stomachic
purge of aloes and spices, probably combined by the ancients with many
other ingredients, as it is by the moderns with rhubarb, though now only
given in tincture or solution with wine or spirits. The story of Alexander
rests only on its own Arabian basis.--E.
[16] Meaning, doubtless, the isles of the Mediterranean.--E.
[17] Referring, obviously, to the Isthmus of Suez.--E.
[18] This does not refer to the coast of Barbary in the Mediterranean,
but must mean the coast of the barbarian Arabs or Bedouins.--E.
[19] This singular expression probably signifies that the inhabitants
are without law or regular government.--E.
[20] This curious account of the origin of ambergris, was revived again
about twenty-five years ago, and published in the Philosophical Transactions
of the Royal Society of London, as a new discovery. The only difference
in the modern account of the matter is, that the ambergris originates within
the alimentary canal of the whale, in consequence, probably, of some disease;
and that the lumps which are found afloat, or cast on shore, had been extruded
by these animals.--E.
[21] Bahrein is an island in the Persian gulf, on the Arabian shore,
still celebrated for its pearl fishery.--E.